MOSCOW: Correspondent Dmitry Osipov/. In the most dramatic years of World War II arose the issue of delivering aircraft supplied by the All...
MOSCOW: Correspondent Dmitry Osipov/. In the most dramatic years of World War II arose the issue of delivering aircraft supplied by the Allies. The Alaska -Siberia air route, connecting the US and the USSR, started operating in 1943. Flight safety in most difficult weather conditions was vital. Here is a story about the input meteorologists made in the Great Victory.
The route of courage
Dozens new weather stations appeared amid the tundra and taiga. Hundreds of specialists and local residents developed new approaches to weather forecasting methods and aviation meteorology, said Natalia Kostina of the Yakut Department of Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring.
In July 1941, the USSR State Defense Committee ordered building a special air route between the United States and the USSR to serve the Lend-Lease program. The construction of the Uelkal - Krasnoyarsk route, later the Krasnoyarsk Air Route (also known as Alsib, the Northern Trace), began in the fall of 1941.
"The meteorologically extremely complex and important air route was absolutely unexplored. Therefore, it was necessary to organize urgently new weather stations. Officially, the air route was put into operation on January 30, 1943, but it was on October 6, 1942 that Ilya Mazuruk led the first aircraft grouping. The flight from Fairbanks to Krasnoyarsk took 35 days," the expert said.
Before the end of 1941, the Yakut Department of Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring managed to open three weather stations, and in January 1942 - another one, plus the branch started operating seven stations from the Northern Sea Route Directorate. In July 1942, the Trans-Baikal Front's Yakut Branch was appointed responsible for meteorological services on the route. The main task was to offer meteorological support for combat aircraft flights along the route, which was 4,863 km long - from the USSR eastern border in Chukotka to Krasnoyarsk. Further on, the aircraft were taken to the front by rail.
That order also covered the establishment of a meteorological center in Seimchan, the Magadan Region, in 1942, and opening or reorganizing of another 12 weather stations along the Yakutsk - Uelkal route. The order was fulfilled.
"People were dropped in the middle of nowhere"
Of three proposed Alsib routes, the choice was for the third route, where it ran mostly above the Far East and Siberia - from Chukotka to the Krasnoyarsk Region.
"The territory is harsh and most of it is still unpopulated. There were no airfields, and, as we can remember, the Soviet aviation started developing only in the 1930s. The vast territory through which the route was supposed to run - almost 5,000 km - had no habitable places, no reliable communications, no ground transport, no weather service support," the historian said.
The issue of personnel became acute, since many specialists had been called up to the front. Later on, when the weather department started reporting to the Trans-Baikal Front, all specialists became liable for military service and received reservations from the draft. The personnel outflow stopped. "Some specialists came from the European part of the country, often from occupied territories," she continued, adding many of them were from Ukraine, Belarus, and Leningrad.
"At first, they got to Yakutsk, from where they were distributed to newly organized stations. There were also short-term three-month courses for monitoring technicians," she said.
The organization of hard-to-reach stations relied on just a few employees. The first task was to deliver building materials, then to build the station, have fuel, food dropped, and organize communications. It could take as long as four years to organize such a station in peace time, Ilya Mazuruk said, stressing back then all the work was completed within ten months.
"People were dropped, figuratively speaking, in the middle of nowhere," the historian said. "First of all, they started building a working space to have a place where they could monitor and transmit the weather data. Everyday life aspects came later. Quite often, they spent first winters in tents and dugouts. Their few working tools were elementary hand tools - a shovel, an axe, a saw. Whenever time permitted, they went hunting and fishing."
Anna Mozolevskaya, an observatory's senior technician, recalled: "Life in Yakutsk was ok. We had stamps to receive American products - white bread, chocolate, tinned meat, and so on. Besides, Uryvaev organized a fishing team in Tabaga. The team leader used to bring the fish to Yakutsk, and we distributed it among all departments - in turn."
Weather forecaster Galina Mishnina said: "[Pavel Andreevich Uryvaev] is a smart leader and a great person. Despite his busy schedule, he paid a lot of attention to us, weather forecasters. He often visited the stations network, looked into our work, and was attentive to our requests." Anna Mozolevskaya recalled: "He was the youngest head of the department, very businesslike and self-possessed. Working with him was easy. He was strict and fair."
Every person, doing own job, performed a small labor feat, the historian continued. "Despite the hard life, just like all Soviet people had, meteorologists observed the slogan: "Everything for the front is everything for the Victory." Nowadays, these words may seem pretentious, worn-out, but back then this is exactly how people lived. They worked without vacations or days off, without minding working hours. In my opinion, and from the modern point of view, they all are heroes. They were doing their job, be there rain, snow, minus 50, or plus 30," she said.
In 1942 only, she continued, the staff signed up for a military loan of total 169,790 rubles. Their cash of 45,890 rubles was used for the Socialist Yakutia tank unit, and another 5,942 rubles for gifts to soldiers.
Eyes and hands
Meteorologists faced the task to ensure safe flights along the route. Severe turbulence or headwinds, thunderstorms, and overcast days affected flying. The specialists began making wind forecasts for heights up to 4,000 meters and cloud forecasts so that pilots could work through clouds. Flights above clouds began with forecasts of the upper cloud limit. "That data was obtained in the field, often even for the first time. The aviation meteorology was developing along with the aviation, practically in parallel, with no time for tests," the historian said.
New aviation meteorology stations at the host airports - Seimchan, Oymyakon and Yakutsk - were organized by 1942. Auxiliary stations were set up along the route. Aerology sounding was used more actively since 1943 to improve forecasts.
"The route's distance is huge, the terrain is different, climatic and weather conditions are different. Chukotka's conditions, with the proximity of two oceans, are very specific, the weather is completely unpredictable. Between Magadan's Seimchan and Yakutia's Teply Klyuch, was a mountainous area where weather conditions may change in an instant," Natalia Kostina said.
In 1943, specialists began giving forecasts for separate airfields, began surveying clouds at night. A team of long-term forecasters moved from Irkutsk to Yakutsk to conduct research.
They conducted 14 studies to ensure and describe the air route. They analyzed causes of thunderstorms in Yakutia, temperature distribution in altitude, synoptic conditions for strong winds, rains in Yakutia, fogs in Uelkal in Chukotka, winter fogs in Yakutia and Kolyma. "They studied aircraft icing conditions, and addressed practical tasks to favor safe flights," the historian said.
The meteorology observation system was systematized during the war. "Since 1943, a system of uniform methods for meteorology observations was introduced <…>. Many approaches, that are still valid, were tested on that route. Hydrometeorology received a major impetus," she continued.
The Yakut department's weather stations grew during the war from 27 to 82. Not a single station was closed after the war. The weather stations and the airfield network continued working in the post-war period.
Memory of the feat
For many years the Alaska - Siberia route was out of mind: "I can remember that for the first time the route was mentioned again in 1992, on its 50th anniversary. There started conferences, first published works and memoirs," Natalia said.
Over the war, the Yakut department's weather stations served more than 4,500 group and single flights. A group of specialists was awarded orders and medals for the successful meteorology support for transportation of aircraft from the United States to the front.
Pavel Uryvaev's award list, dated September 24, 1944, reads he "personally supervised and provided weather forecasts for important flights along the route of the US vice president and other persons." "Uryvaev managed the department during the war, and after it he was sent to work in Arkhangelsk, and later on he was engaged in science and then managed the Primorye Region's department. Unfortunately, he passed away early, he was only 59," the historian said.
The Yakut department every year pays tribute to veterans. "Unfortunately, no one is alive. The last veteran died two years ago. He was 101," Natalia Kostina said.
Yury Antonov did a lot of research on work of the Yakut department during the war. He worked there in 1955-1998: "He has been working on this topic all his life, presently is a retiree. He has written three volumes of the Yakutia Hydrometeorology Service Chronicle. In the second volume, for the first time, he presents in a systematic form the department's work during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The book pays much attention to people who heroically explored sparsely populated areas of Yakutia, Kolyma and Chukotka. His great work gives to us archival documents and memories of people who participated directly in events of those years," the expert said.
Historians, studying this topic, say about people, undeservedly forgotten for many years, who helped with construction of airfields and weather stations. "Though they worked equally hard, their work was not mentioned anywhere. It was only in the 1990s that the topic was re-opened, that justice began to be restored. Those people and their labor feat were made public, and they began to receive benefits," the historian said in conclusion.
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